Vail Daily letter: Irresponsible journalism

Sunday, July 13, Vail Daily carried three AP articles by Khaled Khazziha and Mohammed Daraghmeh which all presented Israel in an unfavorable light. While the body of the articles tried to give a more balanced account, the headlines distorted this tragic conflict. A headline “Israel refuses to end offensive against Gaza, over 150 Palestinians killed in past week” or “Israeli bombing turns Gaza into ghost town” in no way addresses the suffering and trauma to the Israeli people initiated by Hamas. Hamas is a documented terror organization which has sworn to destroy Israel and world Jewry if possible. One article quotes a man saying, “I wish I were a young man so I could wear a suicide belt and go blow myself up in Tel Aviv.” The fact that Israel has suffered few casualties as the result of the Iron Dome technology seems to facilitate Israel being seen as the aggressor.

My daughter and her family were to leave to Israel today to join members of their congregation from LA for the Bat Mitzvah of my granddaughter but on Friday they made the heartbreaking decision to cancel their trip. The response from our family waiting for them in Israel was as follows: “We try to minimize going out and when we come to buy something we ask where is the safe room as we learned that despite Iron Dome it is best to be in a safe room during a siren so briefly you made a logical decision.”

These articles the Vail Daily chose to print seem to follow the old rubric, “If it bleeds, print it,” and is irresponsible journalism that sadden me to see in my local and valued paper.